Mixing steps.

Steps I take when mixing

PHASE ONE - THE PRE-MIX

1. Import tracks into DAW

1. Start with beat

1. Arrange the order of the instrument tracks beginning with percussions at the top from lowest to highest frequency, followed by melody tracks from lowest to highest frequency

1. Colour code the instrument tracks
   Blue- percussions
   Maroon- melodies

1. Route the instrument tracks to the mixer channels

1. Arrange the vocal tracks with leads at the top and backups at the bottom

1. Color code the vox tracks
   Green- lead vox
   Blue- backup vox
   Orange- ad libs

8.route the vox tracks to the mixer and buss as appropriate

1. Begin track editing with the following mnemonic CRAFT
   C-comp
   R-remove silence
   A-align
   F-filter (as in high pass filtering)
   T-tune (as in auto tune or manual tune)

1. Bring all faders down

1. Rough balance of tracks starting with vocals, balance the vocal tracks against themselves, then balance the instrument tracks against the balanced vocal tracks. Ensuring proper gain staging

PHASE TWO - THE ACTUAL MIX

1. Begin actual mix

1. Start with subtractive eq of all vocal tracks, apply similar settings to similar tracks

1. Start with the busiest part of the song (usually the final chorus) and loop that section

1. Mute the beat

1. Solo the lead vox

1. Begin compression of lead vox, then eq for sweetening, then reverb, then keep shaping the sound till you get what you want.

1. Solo the backup vox

1. Do same for backup vox (ie eq, compression, reverb, stereo enhancement if needed, etc)

1. See how the lead vox and backup vox blend. Adjust to taste.

1. Apply de-essing and light compression to the entire "vocal mixdown" buss (sub mix)

1. Un-solo the beat and listen to how the vox blends with the beat. Make adjustments as needed. All this while, the busiest part of the song is still on loop, and is the part under focus

23.un- loop the busiest section of the song and play song from start to finish

1. Start working on individual sections from intro, verse 1, first chorus, etc all the way to outro to add elements of special interest, delay, distortion, spot fx on particular words or phrases, etc
   Automation may be required at this point to smoothen things out a bit or dial down some effects at earlier sections of the song, or to create spot fx on particular words or phrases

1. Switch off the computer screen and listen through again,using only your ears and take mental notes as to what you think may need adjusting and fine tuning. Listen at both very low and relatively high volumes to see if everything sounds great at both levels. Adjust, listen, adjust, listen, adjust, till no further adjustment ideas spring up in your mind

1. Bounce out a mixdown and proceed to mastering.

1. Mastering

Any questions or comments?